


Fragility

by HermioneVolante



Series: Hermione Volante [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Kairos (O'Keefe) Series - Madeleine L'Engle
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-12
Updated: 2014-09-12
Packaged: 2018-02-17 02:33:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 470
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2293742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HermioneVolante/pseuds/HermioneVolante
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two girls prepare muffins.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fragility

**Author's Note:**

> This is Hermione from the beginning of Order of the Phoenix and Meg from between A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. No explanation is offered for how this meeting could take place.

“Our baking projects seem to be getting more intense,” said Hermione. “Is that a note of competition I hear?” She twirled her wand in time with her words, and the spoon twirled with it.

“You cheat. Magic is cheating. I need to use science to keep up.” Meg used the back of a knife to level off the flour with geometric precision, and added exactly one cup to the mixture.

“You know there isn't a prize, right? Other than muffins. I think these will be our best yet.” Still stirring, she snagged a blueberry from the scale, ate it, and then added a slightly smaller blueberry. The dial ticked down from a troubling 160.01 to a satisfactory 160.00.

“Now that I've accounted for elevation effects on leavening, yes, they'd better be. We're running out of time before you have to go back to fighting You-Know-Who. I want to get at least one thing right. Even if I haven't managed to teach you anything useful for your war, or even managed to Name you, which is the the only reason they sent me to you in the first place.”

“Not this again.” Hermione rolled her eyes. “This was what I needed. It's been good for me. I think it's been good for you too. The problem with you is that your favorite use for your massive intellect is to think of reasons why you're not good enough and you'll never succeed.”

Meg set the measuring cup down sharply. “The problem with you is that you think you can just keep telling everyone to be better, and keep telling yourself to be better, and eventually everyone will get everything right, like magic. People aren't like that. Even if you polish forever they won't be perfect, and they'll resent you for acting like they should be.”  
“Don't try to turn this around.” Hermione's wand sunk down. The spoon, free from her charm, clattered to the floor. “I was perfectly content with imperfect muffins.” There was a mark on her cheek in the shape of an apostrophe, made by a stray puff of flour.

She was about to say more, but Meg crossed the space between them suddenly and put her hand on Hermione's cheek, silencing her. “Hermione Granger, I've seen you as you are and I love you for it. I Name you. You are part of me and I am part of you.” She kissed her precisely over her right eye, then spun back to the counter.

Hermione stood still for a long moment, then exhaled. She stooped to pick up the spoon. “That was the single most melodramatic experience of my life.”

“It wasn't melodramatic. It was my sacred duty.” Meg didn't turn around.

Hermione slipped her arm around Meg's waist. “I didn't say it was bad. Just dramatic.”


End file.
